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Topic: What the...??? (Read 5554 times)

I've heard that, as a second language, English is the most difficult language to master. Maybe even as a first language.

Well, "English" is mostly a blend of French, Norse, German, and merchant words from far away. On one hand, it is amazing that English has any poetry. On the other, poetry from other languages seems so easy (everything rhymes by the endings of words.

I've heard that, as a second language, English is the most difficult language to master. Maybe even as a first language.

I was sitting at a cafe in Berlin back in the day and the two young (college age) ladies at the next table were doing their English homework. They were struggling. I popped a suggestion their way and they came over and sat at my table. ( :) ) A few minutes later one of them slammed her book down and said (cleaned up) "Do they really teach this shit to babies?" Coming from a German speaker this was impressive.

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers

Well, "English" is mostly a blend of French, Norse, German, and merchant words from far away. On one hand, it is amazing that English has any poetry. On the other, poetry from other languages seems so easy (everything rhymes by the endings of words.

There were two classes 700 years ago in England. The lower classes speaking Anglo-Saxon, and the upper class speaking French, with fancy words from Latin etc in there for those who went to Oxford. The Black Death changed all that. A creole language was formed by all the orphans, a broken language of the streets. That and lower class people wanting to sound sophisticated with loan words. Old Anglo-Saxon itself, is closely related to a Dutch dialect ... Frisian.

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𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎌𐎀𐎍𐎎𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀𐎟𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎁𐎀𐎍𐎉𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀luu shalmaata luu balt’aataMay you be well, may you be healthy

I was sitting at a cafe in Berlin back in the day and the two young (college age) ladies at the next table were doing their English homework. They were struggling. I popped a suggestion their way and they came over and sat at my table. ( :) ) A few minutes later one of them slammed her book down and said (cleaned up) "Do they really teach this shit to babies?" Coming from a German speaker this was impressive.

Got you 2 women at your table, right? Everyone from elsewhere is interesting. This New England guy got sent to Ft Worth Texas on business once and I was a hottie by the accent in the local bar. WooHOO!

There were two classes 700 years ago in England. The lower classes speaking Anglo-Saxon, and the upper class speaking French, with fancy words from Latin etc in there for those who went to Oxford. The Black Death changed all that. A creole language was formed by all the orphans, a broken language of the streets. That and lower class people wanting to sound sophisticated with loan words. Old Anglo-Saxon itself, is closely related to a Dutch dialect ... Frisian.

Yeah, "assault AND battery", mutton vs sheep" etc. But, um, anglo-saxon is anglo-saxon from denmark. I can go back farther if you want...

The dialect is Frisian today, and they are on the N Sea on the edge of Holland today. 1600 years ago, not so much.

Danes came later ... in 850 CE. The Anglo-Saxons came in 450 CE. Denmark wasn't Denmark, until the Danes moved down from S Sweden into that peninsula when the Anglo-Saxons-Jutes moved out. On thing that motivated them to move, was to get away from Attila the Hun, and take advantage of Romano-British weakness.

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𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎌𐎀𐎍𐎎𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀𐎟𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎁𐎀𐎍𐎉𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀luu shalmaata luu balt’aataMay you be well, may you be healthy

I've heard that, as a second language, English is the most difficult language to master. Maybe even as a first language.

I tried to learn some Spanish. I bought a set of 4 or 5 DVDs on the cheap. It started out OK, going real slow, but after I had mastered maybe 10 vocabulary words they started throwing sentences at me with words I had never been exposed to. I never got so lost in such a hurry. I gave up in despair, even though I heard Spanish was supposed to be one of the easier languages to learn. Maybe I should have tired Mandarin.

The dialect is Frisian today, and they are on the N Sea on the edge of Holland today. 1600 years ago, not so much.

Danes came later ... in 850 CE. The Anglo-Saxons came in 450 CE. Denmark wasn't Denmark, until the Danes moved down from S Sweden into that peninsula when the Anglo-Saxons-Jutes moved out. On thing that motivated them to move, was to get away from Attila the Hun, and take advantage of Romano-British weakness.

The Angles came from the Baltic shores. Well, ALL the goths came from the Asian steppes originally. Not going back to OOA details of course...

I tried to learn some Spanish. I bought a set of 4 or 5 DVDs on the cheap. It started out OK, going real slow, but after I had mastered maybe 10 vocabulary words they started throwing sentences at me with words I had never been exposed to. I never got so lost in such a hurry. I gave up in despair, even though I heard Spanish was supposed to be one of the easier languages to learn. Maybe I should have tired Mandarin.

Sorry you were a victim of poor pedagogy. Spanish is a nice language. I learned Esperanto last September (in 2 weeks) ... the easiest language to learn (and similar to Romance languages). Also some people have a knack, not everyone takes to language, even their native one.

Mandarin is seriously challenging ...

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Top 10 Hardest Languages For Translators to Learn:

Mandarin. Mandarin is a language within the Chinese language group and is actually the most spoken language in the world. ...Arabic. ...Japanese. ...Hungarian. ...Korean. ...Finnish. ...Basque. ...Navajo....

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𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎌𐎀𐎍𐎎𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀𐎟𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎁𐎀𐎍𐎉𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀luu shalmaata luu balt’aataMay you be well, may you be healthy

Aw, you just don't like the Cro-magnon late-comers. You are obviously an anti-blond-haired blue-eyed guy... LOL!

I think that 6000 years ago, when the Bronza Age came to the S Russian steppes ... that wasn't Cro-Magnon. And I don't think that all the Aryans were blond or blue eyed, and still aren't. They are a mixed group like all others.

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𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎌𐎀𐎍𐎎𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀𐎟𐎍𐎜𐎜𐎟𐎁𐎀𐎍𐎉𐎀𐎀𐎚𐎀luu shalmaata luu balt’aataMay you be well, may you be healthy

I think that 6000 years ago, when the Bronza Age came to the S Russian steppes ... that wasn't Cro-Magnon. And I don't think that all the Aryans were blond or blue eyed, and still aren't. They are a mixed group like all others.

Those weren't the Anglos, Saxons, OR Jutes. They came WAY later. You are talking about the pre-Picts.